Smash hit

The problem with football and business, sighs Rodford, is that too often emotion gets in the way. “That’s why lots of things that logically wouldn’t be done in a normal business are done by football businesses,” he says. It’s also why it generates sensationalist media coverage. (A lot of the “tapping-up” used to be done by sports journalists, remember).

In reality, he says, most agents do a great job, and aren’t skimming off millions in easy money. The average gross profit per player that Formation made last year was £15,000. “For every top player there is also a youth player coming up that you will not make much money on at all.

“The difficulty is that football thinks agents are there to serve the clubs — they are not, they are there to serve the players. You look at the growth of wages and footballers’ commercial development and I would say agents have been particularly successful.”

Some more than others. The row over Stretford’s signing of Rooney blew up in the media after the agent’s appearance as a witness in a trial of three men accused of blackmailing him.

The case collapsed and Stretford’s evidence was called into question. The Pro-Active founder, a formidably street-sharp negotiator, was slated in the press.

Coming at a time when Rodford was expanding Formation, it must have been a body-blow. Despite negotiating Rooney’s lucrative £30m transfer from Everton to Manchester United, the group was left with little to crow about.

“It was tough,” says Rodford, “tough for me personally and tough for the company as a whole, and tough for Paul.”

Rodford then asks me to turn my tape recorder off so he can talk frankly about what happened. Suffice to say, his version emphasises how poorly prepared the company was for the media storm that blew up.

But you would guess there is part of Rodford that enjoys riding the storm. Why else would he be drawn to larger-than-life characters like Stretford or Fayed, with whom he worked closely, pushing Fulham up the divisions?

Opposites attract, of course, and Rodford, who left school at 15 with just two O-levels, has a vulnerable charm that wins many over. Brought up by his mother, a matron at an old- people’s home, after his parents split when he was four, he has never been overly confident, but always had a knack for organisation, and for dealing with people.

Brendan Fitzmaurice, managing director of WH Smith’s news division, spotted it when Rodford was a 17-year-old van driver. He pushed the teenager up the management ladder at WH Smith’s distribution arm because he saw how good the youngster was with those around him.

“Neil’s got a real flair. He’s competitive, but very personable. He makes people want to help him because of his openness,” says Fitzmaurice.
Fayed, who took Rodford on as circulation director at his ill-fated Liberty Media operation, noticed the same qualities. The Harrods boss sent him into Fulham to sort out the back office, while Kevin Keegan ran the playing side. Keegan, later England manager, then hired Rodford to run his burgeoning commercial interests.